25 August 2020.

Introduction:

A three-day online international conference on aerosol air quality, climate change and its impact on water resources and livelihoods in the Greater Himalayas will be held from September 14 to 16.

Highlights:

• The Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital and Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University will jointly organise the conference.
• This is the first online international conference to be held at ARIES during this pandemic.
•  Rapid increase in the air pollution associated with industrialisation, urbanisation and its resultant impact on regional and global air quality, visibility degradation, cloud formation, and atmospheric chemistry, radiation budget, ecosystem, Himalayan climate, and glaciology, cryosphere, monsoon patterns, water availability, and human health will be discussed in the conference.
• International speakers will speak on the themes: Growing air pollution over the Indo-Gangetic plains and central Gangetic Himalayan region, Himalayan glaciers, climate change impacts on Himalayan Glacier and monsoon over the Himalayas.
• The reviewed presentations will be published on a thematic issue, titled “Aerosols-Climate interaction and water resources over the Himalayas” in the Journal of Earth System Science (JESS).
• ARIES, Nainital, started research activities in the field of atmospheric science and climate change about two decades ago.
• It has installed a battery of modern instruments at Manora Peak, a strategically important location in the central Himalayan region, for in-situ measurements of various optical, physical and chemical properties of aerosols and trace gases.